Education RBC Bridges

INTRODUCING THE 2025 RBC BRIDGES EMERGING COMPOSERS

Mari Alice Conrad

Mari Alice Conrad is an award-winning, emerging composer in Alberta, Canada completing her doctorate in composition at the University of Alberta. She specializes in concert works for soloists, chamber ensembles, choirs, and large ensembles. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Mari Alice traveled to the Canadian High Arctic and Greenland (2022) in the creation of a large-scale, interactive composition project for youth exploring the effects of climate change. Her current SSHRC research-creation project examines the perception and expression of place, personal history, and the intersection of sound and geography by exploring objects, light, movement, and space alongside acoustic instruments to create innovative musical contexts. 
Mari Alice’s most recent and current projects include an artist residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and has had her works performed by the Canadian Chamber Choir, the BBC Singers (UK), the University of Alberta Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble ArtChoral (Québec), Pro Coro Canada (Edmonton), Luminous Voices (Calgary), Babɛl Choir (Toronto), Exultate Chamber Singers (Toronto), The University of Alberta Madrigal Singers, Allegra Chamber Orchestra (Vancouver), SHHH!! Ensemble (Ottawa), Edmonton Winds, the Edmonton Saxophone Quartet, The University of Lethbridge Wind Ensemble, and Standing Wave Ensemble (Vancouver). 
Mari Alice’s choral music is published by Hinshaw Music (USA), musica printima (Canada), and Cypress Choral Music (Canada) with upcoming and recent recording projects with the MacEwan University Generations Big Band, violinist Erin James, Edmonton Winds Ensemble, Exultate Chamber Singers, Ensemble ArtChoral, and the SHHH!! Ensemble. 

Rebecca Hass

From the age of 5, Rebecca Hass was well known in her small Ontario town for singing all the way to school and back again. She was the star of the family kitchen parties, singing folk and country songs, while her uncle played the spoons and her grannie step danced.  Due to a surprising turn of fate, she ended up spending her long professional career as a leading mezzo soprano, singing western classical music on some of the largest stages in Canada and abroad. She is now coming full circle as an artist, welcoming her Georgian Bay Métis ancestors into her settler (German, English, French) ancestors’ musical world. Embracing the cultural land teachings from her Métis side, passed on by her Dad and Grannie, Rebecca is actively seeking to reconnect the matriarchal lines of cultural transmission through creating songs with vocables, Indigenous language, teachings she carries, and by listening deeply to the land.  In her recently completed artist residency at the Leighton Studios at the Banff Centre for Creativity and the Arts, Rebecca has developed an artistic compositional practice that visions a way to gather people, spark their memories of connection to land, and transform their connection to community and place through music. 
Rebecca was the inaugural winner of the 2022 Nada Ristich Changemaker Ruby Award from Opera Canada. She is also an emerging composer and curator, a writer, creative living coach, and the host of What’s Up with Opera, a podcast she produces in her role as the Director of Engagement and New Work at Pacific Opera Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. 

Josema García Hormigo

Born in Malaga (Spain), he studied composition at the Superior Music Conservatory of Aragon (Zaragoza, Spain). In 2017, he premiered Vengan las Ánimas, for mixed choir at the Teatro Principal (Zaragoza) with the C.S.M.A. Chamber Choir, conducted by Elena Ruiz-Ortega. In 2020, he won the 41st Frédéric Mompou International Award with his work Neon Issues: Duo for Saxophone and Accordion. In 2021, he took part in the Innopraktika and Russians Seasons 2021 Musical Session, a scholarship for a three-week residency in Saint Petersburg to compose an orchestral piece. In 2022, he premiered an opera for choir, actors, and ensemble commissioned by the Goya Foundation, titled “Francisco de Goya: going elsewhere through music”. It obtained the Incentive for the Premiere of Large Format Works from the SGAE in 2023. He combines his work as a composer by creating music for audiovisual projects, such as Fuga del Gato (2024) by Sélin van Laethem and PLAK (2024) by Stijn van Staveren. Recently, he has worked as an orchestrator for Dirk Brossé on several projects.
He has received commissions for choir from the Saulus Festival (Zaragoza), the Nubah Choir (Granada), and the Ejea de los Caballeros Choral Competition 2025 (Zaragoza)

Oskar Österling

Oskar Österling, born in Stockholm in 2004, is a Swedish composer, pianist, and (sometimes) singer active in Sweden and England. His education began at Lilla Akademien, where he studied composition under Matthew Peterson and piano with Anders Hagerstrom and Sergei Reznikov. Tn 2023, he continued his studies at Trinity College of Music in London under Errollyn Wallen CBE, Master of the King’s Music. 
Oskar’s compositions range from choral and orchestral works to chamber and solo pieces. His music has been performed widely across the Nordics and the UK, in venues such as Stockholm’s Queen Silvia Hall and the Royal Hall at KMH. He has collaborated with notable ensembles including Gustaf Sjokvist’s Chamber Choir, the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, and the ORNC Chapel Choir. Since 2023, a selection of his vocal works are published by Gehrmans Publishing. 
Standout projects include his work with author Alexander McCall Smith, for whom he composed Songs of Love and Longing and the finale for the oratorio A Celebration of Trees, premiered in 2022. His recent song cycle, Pictures of the Floating World, written for London-based tenor Matthew Pinto sees its premiere in 2025 and his setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis premiered in London under Ralph Allwood. 
As a performer, Oskar has sung with ensembles like the ORNC Chapel Choir and the London Philharmonic, deepening his insight into composition and performance. His work has been praised by collaborators as harmonically captivating, with an attention to timbral nuances that lend his works a unique delicacy and depth. 

Katharine Petkovski

KATHARINE PETKOVSKI is a Toronto-based composer and pianist recognized for her emotive, minimalist approach and innovative cross-disciplinary collaborations. Her work spans
film, choral, and instrumental music, often exploring themes of reflection, belonging, and connection through sound and storytelling. Named by CBC as one of “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30,” Katharine’s compositions have been performed and premiered by celebrated ensembles such as musica intima, the National Youth Choir of Canada, the Exultate Chamber Singers, and the Odin Quartet. She is the recipient of multiple awards, including the NDSU Edwin Fissinger Choral Composition Prize and Choral Canada’s Diane Loomer Award in 2024 for her piece When Music Sounds, marking her first publishing deal with Cypress Music. She was also awarded the Bedford Trio Composition Competition in 2021 and participated in the 2023 Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra New Generation Composition Program, composing a new work for string quartet. Currently, she is part of the Amadeus Choral Creation Lab, where three of her new choral works will premiere with the Amadeus Choir in 2025. Katharine’s film scores have been featured at renowned festivals, including the Ottawa International Animation Festival (“Freedom”) and the Vancouver International Film Festival (“Coin Slot”). She holds both a BMus and MMus in Composition from the University of Toronto, where she received the prestigious Tecumseh Sherman Rogers Graduating Award. Katharine is an active member of the Screen Composer’s Guild of Canada, the Canadian League of Composers, and the Alliance for Women Film Composers.

Mees Vervuurt

Mees Vervuurt (2000) is a composer and director based in Amsterdam. He graduated from BA ‘Music & Performance Art’ and ‘Composition’ at Utrecht Conservatory in 2022. Besides, he studied with Catherine Kontz and Bushra El-Turk at the Alternative Conservatoire (London). 
Mees works in the music, performance and (music) theatre field in the Netherlands and abroad. He makes transdisciplinary performances where music, imagery, movement, and space come together. With musicians, physical performers, and location, he creates poetic, dreamlike worlds. Worlds where the audience can momentarily disappear. From vocalists in a water cellar with a 30-second echo, to a percussionist who is playing a piano on hundreds of wires attached to the strings – in these universes, sound, instruments and space are discovered in completely new ways. 
Mees’ works have been performed at International renowned venues like O. Festival (Rotterdam), Tête-à-Tète Festival (London), Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ (Amsterdam) & Gaudeamus Festival (Utrecht). Additionally, Mees composed music for Lucilin Ensemble (Luxembourg), Het Nationale Theater & Peeping Tom (La Visita).
In 2024, Mees founded his organization ‘Studio Vacuüm’ to create and produce in a sustainable and independent manner. 

RBC Bridges: Emerging Composers Program

Program Dates: February 21 – 28, 2025
Visiting Mentor: Tarik O’Regan
Resident Ensemble: Vancouver Chamber Choir
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Applications are now closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted.

Soundstreams’ RBC Bridges: Emerging Composers Program is an annual week-long tuition-free workshop that culminates in a public premiere performance. The week brings together celebrated mentors, a professional resident ensemble, and six emerging composers from around the world to each develop and premiere a new work, presented as part of Soundstreams’ main stage concert series in Toronto, ON.  

This year we are pleased to announce Tarik O’Regan as our visiting mentor and the Vancouver Chamber Choir as our resident ensemble. Previous RBC Bridges visiting mentor composers have included: R. Murray Schafer, Unsuk Chin, Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho, and Chris Paul Harman, Paul Grabowsky, and André Ristic.

Each participant will receive a $1,000 honorarium and free accommodation in Toronto for the duration of the workshop. Travel expenses to and from Toronto are the responsibility of the participants.  

The workshop week includes seminars, networking events, rehearsals, 1-1 mentorship sessions, and professional development activities that foster new connections, artistic development, and lifelong career building.  

The 2025 edition of Soundstreams’ RBC Bridges Program will feature British/American composer Tarik O’Regan as our composer/mentor-in-residence. Invited participants will write a short piece (5’ maximum) for our resident ensemble, which this year we’re thrilled to announce will be the Vancouver Chamber Choir. The Vancouver Chamber choir is a 16-voice SATB choir. Composers must write for the full voicing of the choir, either SATB or SSAATTBB and may include possible solo voices from within the choir. Works can be written either as a cappella (non-accompanied, voices only) or as accompanied works with piano. 

The Bridges Composers works will be premiered at Soundstream’s mainstage concert featuring the Vancouver Chamber Choir on February 27th, 2025, at Christ Church Deer Park, Toronto ON. 

ABOUT THE MENTOR:

Tarik Hamilton O’Regan is a London-born composer based in San Francisco. In recent years much of his work has investigated and been influenced by his dual Arab and Irish heritages. 

24/25 sees performances in many parts of the world, including at Deutsche Opera Berlin, the Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in Manhattan, Soundstreams in Toronto, and by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Vancouver Chamber Choir among others. Also, this season, his writing is featured on the longstanding BBC Radio series, The Essay, and he will be awarded the prestigious Yaddo Artist Medal at a ceremony in New York City. 

Tarik’s output, recognized with two GRAMMY® nominations and two Ivors®, has been recorded on over 47 albums, and is published exclusively by Novello. He maintains a longstanding commitment to education and service to the arts in general. This has been acknowledged by his election to an Honorary Fellowship of Pembroke College, Oxford, and his inclusion in the Washington Post’s 2022 list of creative artists who are “changing the classical landscape.” 

In 2023 he was awarded the Coronation Medal by His Majesty King Charles III for his Agnus Dei, commissioned for the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey. Most recently Oratorio of Hope, a project which O’Regan helped devise, was nominated for a 2024 Royal Philharmonic Society Award, and the commissioning of his Requiem for the Estranged received a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) ahead of its premiere in 2025. 

ABOUT THE RESIDENT ENSEMBLE:

Artistic Director Kari Turunen began leading the Vancouver Chamber Choir — one of Canada’s premier professional choral ensembles — in September 2019, its 49th concert season. 

Jon Washburn founded the choir in 1971 and it has become an amazing success story, ranking with the handful of North America’s best professional choruses and noted for its diverse repertoire and performing excellence. The choir has presented concerts to audiences at home in Vancouver and on tour across Canada. International excursions have taken them to the USA, Mexico, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Finland, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. 

Honoured with the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence by Chorus America, the choir has performed countless concerts and broadcasts, released 36 recordings and received numerous awards. Foremost supporters of Canadian music, they are responsible for commissions and premieres of 334 choral works by 145 composers and arrangers, most of whom are Canadian. Over the years the choir has sung over 4,000 performances of works by Canadian composers, in addition to their extensive international repertoire. 

The choir’s award-winning educational programs include the Conductors’ Symposium for advanced choral conductors, Interplay interactive workshops for choral composers, Focus professional development program for student singers, OnSite visitations for school choirs, the biennial Young Composers’ Competition, and many on-tour workshops and residencies. 

ABOUT RBC BRIDGES:

RBC Bridges is an annual week-long tuition-free program that brings together celebrated composer-mentors, a professional resident ensemble, and six emerging composers chosen through a competition. Composers selected to participate are given the opportunity to develop and premiere a short new work for a professional resident ensemble with mentorship from a distinguished visiting composer.

The program also includes professional development workshops on subjects including publishing, commissioning, approaching artistic directors/producers with your music, and making a living as a composer. Initiated in 2013, RBC Bridges visiting mentor composers have included: R. Murray Schafer, Unsuk Chin, Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho, and Chris Paul Harman, Paul Grabowsky, and André Ristic. Resident ensembles have included the Gryphon Trio, the Ralston String Quartet and TORQ.

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ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Eligible applicants must self-identify as “emerging.” To help determine if you fit into this category, consider whether one or more of the following statements apply to you:

• You are currently studying, or recently graduated from, a related post-graduate degree/program or other formal training.
• You devote 24 hours a week or more to the pursuit of your art.
• You are not yet recognized as “established” by your peers.
• You have not yet had a major commission or presentation opportunity (or very few).

Selected participants must be available to attend all workshop dates in Toronto, Canada from February 21 – 28, 2025. 

 The program is open to applicants from Canada and internationally. International participants are responsible for obtaining the required visa to travel to Canada. All travel expenses are the responsibility of the participant. Accommodation is provided free of charge to participants.   

We welcome applications from composers of all backgrounds and musical traditions. Please note that the Workshop depends on participants’ ability to use musical notation; however, if musical notation is not part of your practice, we may be able to consider ways to accommodate your needs if this has been identified at the time of application.  

Please note that the Workshop is delivered in English. 

ANTI-RACISM, ACCESS AND EQUITY AT SOUNDSTREAMS

At Soundstreams we recognize that barriers to services exist for members of diverse communities, particularly for equity seeking groups, and we are committed to acting as a positive force in eliminating these barriers.

To achieve this, Soundstreams will:

• ensure that diverse communities have equitable access to its services, resources and decision making.
• be non-discriminatory and promote the goals of antiracism, access, and equity; and
• take reasonable steps to ensure its services, programs and decision making reflect the community it serves

Soundstreams is committed to maintaining an environment where all individuals are treated with dignity and respect and are free from all forms of discriminatory treatment, behaviour or practice.

Applicants may choose to disclose any accessibility needs or concerns related to applying and/or attending the Workshop. Soundstreams will endeavour to support accessibility needs wherever possible.

QUESTIONS?

If you have inquiries about the application process, contact Amy Wilford at amyw [at] soundstreams.ca